Sep. 27, 2013
|

Carlos Ortiz in Attleboro District Court for on June 28. / Mark Stockwell, AP

by Staff and wire, USATODAY

by Staff and wire, USATODAY

FALL RIVER, Mass. - An associate of Aaron Hernandez has been indicted on a charge of accessory to murder after the fact in the killing of a friend of the former New England Patriot.

Bristol County District Attorney Samuel Sutter said Friday that a grand jury indicted Carlos Ortiz on a single count in connection with the killing of Odin Lloyd. If convicted, Ortiz faces seven years in prison.

Ortiz had earlier pleaded not guilty to a gun charge. He was due in court in Attleboro on Friday for a hearing on that count, but it was postponed.

Lloyd was found shot to death on June 17 in an industrial park in North Attleborough, Mass., near Hernandez's home, and Ortiz had been shaping up as the star witness against Hernandez, who has been charged with murder.

According to court documents, Ortiz told investigators that when Lloyd was shot in the early morning hours, Hernandez and Ernest Wallace had exited the car with Lloyd to urinate when shots were fired.

According to affidavits, Ortiz said he remained in the car and told investigators he couldn't see who had fired the shots but was later told by Wallace that Hernandez was the shooter.

At Thursday's bail hearing for Wallace, who was indicted as an accessory after the fact, prosecutors said Ortiz has changed his story and now says Hernandez was the only person who exited the car with Lloyd when the vehicle stopped in the industrial park.

When asked Thursday if he was worried the case against Hernandez had been weakened because Ortiz has changed his story, Sutter said, "Absolutely not."

Prosecutors have not fingered Hernandez as the shooter. They have said only that the former New England Patriots tight end "orchestrated" the execution-style killing.

Last month, while arguing for a lower bail for Wallace, attorney David Meier implied the district attorney's office had made a deal with Ortiz, who at that time faced the least serious charges in the case.

Hernandez has pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder and weapons charges in Lloyd's death and is being held without bail at a county jail. Wallace is being held on $500,000 bail. Ortiz has not had a bail hearing yet.